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Joschka Fischer was German Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor from 1998-2005, a term marked by Germany's strong support for NATO's intervention in Kosovo in 1999, followed by its opposition to the war in Iraq. Fischer entered electoral politics after participating in the anti-establishment protests of the 1960s and 1970s, and played a key role in founding Germany's Green Party, which he led for almost two decades.

Greece needs much reform, but none more than its government accounting. Without good accounting Greece cannot know its current fiscal position, and cannot manage its way forward. Decisions will be based on politics and speculation. Adopting International Public Sector Accounting Standards will provide the transparency and accountability upon which to build a foundation of trust and confidence. To learn more suggest studying the material at www.mostimportantreform.info.

Dear Mr. Fisher, since when lying and deceiving millions is OK? You wrote "They did not understand – and did not want to understand – the difference between campaigning and governing. Realpolitik, in their view, was a sellout.".
Is this your style? To say whatever it takes to be elected? And once in power to do whatever you want? If you were a business you would be bankrupt. You will be in courts for false advertisements, consumers will sue you, etc.

Unless you have been living on Mars, I am sure it has not escaped your attention that it is part of all democracies that campaigning and governing is different. Only fundamentalist oftentimes don't differentiate between the two. And I am not sure we should wish them in government.

How curious that the Mr Fisher has forgotten that Greek entry into the Euro system was based on technical support from Goldman Sachs who's creative accounting was supported by the German Banks. It not the irresponsible Greeks that are to blame but the same same culprits who brought down the world financial system in 2008. Most of the initial Greek financial relief flowed to German bondholders and the financial suffering is already being born by the ordinary citizens of Greece; not the 1% in their villas. It's also convenient that Mr Fisher forgets the difference between the punitive economic sanctions placed on Germany after the first WWI and the supportive economic Marshall Plan after WWII. Forgive the debt and move ahead with reforms and rebuilding Greece.

Greeks can't have it both ways. They want to be responsible adults when it comes to spending other peoples money (loans form the North without restrictions). Yet they claim to be duped juveniles when it comes to being tricked into manipulating statistics and taking loans they didn't really want. Right?

The victims in this game are pensioners and workers in countries lie Latvia or Estonia or Slovakia or Portugal. Eurozone-countires that have lower social standards, lower pensions and lower income than the Greeks (even today) and are yet lending 3% of their GDP to Greece - more than their entire annual welfare budget. They showed solidarity with he rich (and tax dodging ´) guys - and are no being asked to lose their money because Greece has chosen to elect a loony-left government.

I am afraid that Tsipras has chosen confrontation, using the referendum to lend legitimacy to rupture https://iglinavos.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/how-to-organise-a-fiddling-competition-during-a-conflagation/

Well Mr Joschka. I feel also sorry for bombing Servia for 'HUMANITARIAN PURPOSES' according to your statement back in 90ies I hope you remember when a leftist like you in those times agreed to the bombing of innocent civilians in aim to overthrough a dictator. Now in Greece because as a member of NATO they cant bomb us but instead they trying for the starvation of the people. I really feel sorry to see how a leftist like you knowing that austerity does not solve the problem of Greece make such comments about a new government (only 3 months) and asking from them to solve the problems which the corrupted governments of Greece the last 40 years has achieved

Mr. Fischer is right on with his analysis of the facts and what has happened in Greece and the EU in the past few months. However, I dare to disagree with his conclusion that Greece is better off in the eurozone than outside. I do believe that Greece needs major reforms, as Mr. Fischer says, but I think they will be faster and easier, if Greece returns to the drachme, can devalue it and repudiate her debts, and become competitive again. Greece is bankrupt, will never pay these huge debts, and needs a fresh start. Maybe Mr. Tsipras is right to work toward an exit, even if his countrymen do not want it.

Indeed, Greece's prime minister Alexis Tsipras is in a "dreamland". Brash and self-assured, he reminds much of James Dean in his 1955 movie "Rebel Without a Cause", when he plays chicken with his country's creditors. His party, Syriza won the election on an anti-austerity ticket, against the recovery blueprint for Greece drawn up by the EU and the IMF. Critics say his government is a "ragtag band" of communists, socialists, dreamers, freedom fighters.
What is amazing is that Joschka Fischer criticises Syriza's "radical opposition activism", while he himself was a member of the 1968 generation in Germany, engaged in demonstrations and streetfighting. And Fischer seems to have little sympathy for Greece's prime minister, who appears to be more of an opportunist than a realist.
Tsipras had not only tried to "isolate Germany within the eurozone", his government's demand for nearly 279 billion euros in reparations from World War Two had angered the Germans. He has also been ingratiating himself with Vladimir Putin, by travelling to Moscow a few weeks ago, hoping to get a loan from Russia. Greece is deeply isolated in Europe and faces a default or a Grexit from the Eurozone. At a news conference together with Putin, Tsipras urged Europe to end sanctions against Russia. But despite warm words, no major agreement seemed to have been reached between the two leaders.
It comes as no surprise that Fischer insists on keeping Greece in the Eurozone, despite anti-German sentiment and deep aggravation against Angela Merkel in Athens. While he was foreign minister under Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, he and his boss had thrown their weight behind Greece's joining the Eurozone, although there were serious doubts about its qualifications. Fischer believes in a modern Germany with an European identity and a strong, united Europe. In recent years Germany leads the other EU member states, that stand up and be counted as a global player. Indeed, only Greece can help itself. But Europe has to be prepared that the "future of the joint European project" shouldn't depend too heavily on Greece! It is important to "help Greece get back on its feet and keep it in the eurozone is in Europe’s interest, both politically and economically". But not at all costs, Greece has to get its act together too.

Greek "act" is just fine. It aims, unwaveringly, for a primary surplus. Germans should not remember liability only when it refers to actors outside Germany. German-led bankers' support should get its act together, as it abandons western democratic traditions, calling it conditionality. A lender can name or negotiate its terms. To dream of a nest where bankers can dictate their terms, because of the lack of political institutions (in the same way as WTO does) and advocate this as the model for Europe, is German (and other northern European) right-wing authoritarian thought (since some do not like the term neoliberal).

"But others in Europe need to abandon their illusions as well. The Greek crisis cannot be used either to weaken European conservatives and change the balance of power within the EU, or to remove the Greek left from office."

This is what this whole article is about; in fact the reverse than stated. To be sure, Fischer begins by criticizing SYRIZA's coalition with Independent Greeks.

There is no way the anticipated deal --if it comes-- will not be a partial defeat either for the center-right European parties or for the European left parties. Fischer is in dreamland.

This is a clash between bank-protecting doctrines advocated by center-right parties and political control of the EZ, in the context of EU, advocated from the left. The ECB must be pushed out of the negotiations, where it belongs (and where it is in all western economies): being an institution managed politically and not dictating policy. There is no way backwards for the left here.

As for the German lenders, they can deny their money, or decide to negotiate, meaning they will have to lose something (more like not gain something). Not knowing how to do this, is a big problem when you have to co-exist. Who is anti-European will be clear in the end, even if it is not clear in our minds now.

As for Greece, the public choice is clear. Staying in the EZ is not preferable at any cost. Politics must be above economics and economics are not the problem here. Germans will have to back off, after 5 years of the Greeks backing off, on the grounds of failed doctrines of omniscient elites. All that is asked is that surplus expectations are moderated. The "reform" agenda suggested can be tested for its effectiveness and the results it produces. The German agenda has been tried. One size fits all has failed once more.

The (private) media in Greece have been against SYRIZA for a long time. Kathimerini is a right-wing newspaper and opinion polls --especially from a single source-- are not very trustworthy, when about very controversial, usually polarized, and soon-to-be-decided issues.

As for a political decision on the stance of the ECB, it is very different from a bankers' decision, because democratic decisions can change and, at worse, they lead to choices instead of blackmail.

If the EZB would be "political" they followed the EZ-Politic by now. What is the difference? I read in kathimerini, 8 of 10 greeks want to stay in EZ even if they have to compromise wirh reforms and give up Syriza-Positions...

the "realities of life" imposed by a Europe which already done "painful reforms"...
When one sees the price already paid by the Greeks (without reforms, as the rest of Europe contends), one can only wonder when, where, such "painful" reforms" were undertaken.
But the most absurd in this otherwise empty piece is the patronizing tone towards the greek "leftists" about "marxist strategy".
Adding insult to injury.
And this coming from someone who apparently claims to want to "cooperate" and dialogue somehow.

It seems that most commentators are fixated on laying the blame for all of Greece's ills on the Troika, with some even deluding themselves into believing that Greece has actually made sufficient reforms, a notion wholly discredited through a cursory review of the latest OECD report on Greece that states "Priority should be given to ensuring that the multiple reforms introduced in the recession and recovery context are being fully implemented. Further reforms are also needed, notwithstanding the progress achieved". Isn't it common sense for a lender to set conditions upon which loans are given, especially when the borrower has a such a dismal track record as Greece, with blatant national account manipulation and wholesale mismanagement of its economy. After all, had Greece been a trustworthy borrower, it would have still had access to international bond markets to finance itself and would not be reduced to flying around Europe trying to dictate the terms of its own rescue package.
What the Greece people have gone though since the crisis has undoubtedly been horrible, but the blame for their predicament should be squarely placed at the door step of their successive governments who failed to manage their finances, and not on the lenders , who despite their ulterior motives of saving their own banks, still coughed up the money to support a country that does not seem willing to support itself.

With Billions of € transferred from Greek bank accounts to foreign destinations EVERY month, and a high-rolling finance minister (look at his villa on Aigina) who mutters "we are running out of money", without any proof/book-keeping, Greece lost all credibility. It's now pay-time for Greek tax-payers, and reduced pensions/wages will be there too. Greece has enough cash, and despite all wailing, howling and disgraceful self-pity, has enough money to bail herself out.

I don't think the article is about the merits of the Troika, the program or (all) the necessary reforms. The article just discusses the squandered opportunities by the current government in Greece. In that, Mr Fischer is spot on. The new government had a fantastic opportunity to (for the first time) claim the moral high-ground. Greece could point to all the socionomic suffering and while doing that invite the European partners to take on the role of "active-investors" in order to kick-start the economy and reform agenda. In other words; invite them in to take responsibility for Greece's success. Instead we got Mr V lecturing everyone around him and pushing his (already published) agenda. The point here is not whether or not he is/was right. The point is how you execute strategy. Result: Extremely poor.

Step aside! Step aside! Crystal ball coming thru. Make room on the stage! In the light, there, with the black velvet tablecloth! Grab the corner, help dust off this old hunk of glass. From the middle of the sea, shot straight out of a volcano, they say. In old Atlantis. Melted as it flew thru the air, and came down all the way in Persia, a perfect, transparent sphere. Except when you look thru it, it's not the other side you see! Picked up magic powers as it flew by the sun, yes did.

See that rose blue gray cloud, in the middle of the marble? Moving slowly to the side and turning over? Thats your future. Yes, you, curious friend. But not yet. Not yet. Greece comes first, wait your turn!

I see... privatizations. A right wing government, deeply in debt. Privatizes every utility and public asset. It will not be enough. They will nationalize, I can see the transfer of ownership right there. Once nationalized, it will be privatized again, to pay the debt. It won't be enough still, so there will be taxes, fine, beautiful taxes. And the right wing thugs will beat down anyone who complains. Their leaders will be lauded for their "pro growth" attitude. Oh yes, there will be beat downs.

"For more than five years, the “troika” (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund) has made it the object of a failed experiment with austerity that has exacerbated the country’s economic crisis." -- Joschka Fischer

Yes, but Greece's economy was failing anyway. Had the Troika not jumped into the fray, the outcome would've become ever worse, and thinking back, Greece's default might have been enough to unhinge the Western economy. (The 'straw that broke the camel's back.')

"But even if there were no troika and no monetary union, Greece would urgently need far-reaching reforms to get back on its feet." -- Joschka Fisher

True. And that is a very profound point that apparently, even some in the Greek government have missed.

"What it also needs is time and money, which the EU should provide if, and when, the Greek authorities face up to reality." -- Joschka Fisher

Also, true. A simple and believable plan to run balanced budgets, or even better, slightly surplus budgets where the surplus is sent off to a contingency fund, along with continuing to meet Greece's debt payments -- should be all it takes to get a boatload of money. When I say money, I mean, of course, the Troika buying up (for example) $100 billion of Greek debt and financing it back to Greece at 0% or 1% interest.

For each 5 years that Greece runs surplus budgets and continues to meet its debt payments, another $100 billion should be bought and refinanced by the Troika at 0% or 1%.

What the EZ nations should be thinking about, is how would they like to be treated if they ever find themselves in the Greek position. Because right now, they are setting EZ precedent. And once they have considered that for a while, treat Greece accordingly. (I know it would likely never happen, but still)

I strongly agree with your last two paragraphs. That's everything.

One bright note has happened recently and that is the Greek Deputy Finance Minister will be the one most involved in day-t0-day discussions with the EZ and the Troika.

This puts Mr. Yanis Varoufakis in an oversight position and allows a sort of Good cop/Bad cop relationship to form between the Greek Ministry of Finance on the one hand, and the EZ/Troika on the other hand.

Which could be the most efficient way of moving this whole situation along.

What a vacuous article. The only actually reasonable argument is that Greece should have cut its defence budget (guess what, the Germans and French have been too busy selling Greece arms to complain about this point). The

The rest is the typical ambiguous, general common places, such as this nonsense: "Greece needs reforms" - what reforms? According to the OECD's most recent survey, Greece was the country that has applied by far the most 'pro-growth' reforms since the crisis. Syriza has refused to compromise? They offered partial privatisation, more taxes, further cuts, etc. The issue is over the extent of the reforms, and what amount should go to stopping the humanitarian crisis caused by the troika's reforms. The devil is in the details, but Joschka is too smart to tell us about those.

Lastly, there's the gem "even if there were no troika and no monetary union, Greece would urgently need far-reaching reforms to get back on its feet". Really? No monetary union? Without the monetary union, German and French banks would not have lent the money to Greece in the first place, and the drachma would have depreciated massively following the divergence with so-called 'core countries'. Surely Greece needs urgent reforms - like getting rid of the corrupt ruling elites of Fisher's "centrist pro-European parties" - but let's not pretend that the monetary union, from which Germany has so egregiously benefited, has no part in this mess.

What mr Fischer is proposing,is to continue with the failure because we already started it. That's not realism,that's stupidity i am sorry to say. When a program is a disaster,a failure of historic propotions,the sensible,the logical thing is not to continue it but to change it in a way that the program will be fairer and successful. That's what the Tsipras and the Greeks want.
Europeans want to continue with failure.

So, the Greek economy was failing anyway regardless of what the EZ and the Troika did, or didn't do.

Thinking back to 2007/08/09 imagine what likely would've happened if Greece didn't get EZ/Troika assistance. Not only would Greece have defaulted, that default may have set off a chain of events, not unlike a row of dominoes. Once one falls, many fall shortly thereafter.

Therefore, it wasn't, isn't, and can't be about Greece and only Greece, all the time. It is about other nations too.

The simple fact is, the EZ and the Troika have stepped in and prevented Greece and many other tipsy economies (in the 2007-2015 timeframe) from falling overboard.

It may not be to Greece's liking, but you can bet that it isn't to EZ taxpayers' liking either.

Making the best of a bad situation is what everyone involved is trying to do -- a situation incidentally, that has been forming since the 1960's, and was certainly not created by the EZ or the Troika.

The article assumes that the "reforms" that the lenders are forcing on Greece make sense or are for the benefit of the country.Nothing is further from the truth:the program that the troika implemented for 5 years now is an economic and social disaster of epic proportions.So,understandably,SYRIZA and the Greek population resent this program and they want to change it to something that make sense,that is beneficial to the country,to the society and to the lenders.
Problem is:the troika managed to offload the debt to the public sector (european taxpayers) and also troika is invested in this program because agreement to change it would mean admission that the program is an abject failure.
In addition,the lenders despise the new Greek government because it's leftist,because it's anti-austerity and because europeans want to make an example of SYRIZA to have other anti austerity parties to fall in line or to fail for the benefit to the neoliberal forces that rule Europe currently.
I would expect for a smart politician to know the facts and not write an article that,frankly,doesn't make any sense other than to whitewash the lenders for their stupidity,malice,lies,threats,blackmail ,misinformation.

The entire Greek austerity plan was designed by the EU with only one objective in mind- to offload the foolish Greek bond purchases by the French and German banks. Now that the tab has been picked up by the EU taxpayers, the troika can talk tough, secure in the knowledge that a Grexit won't cause the French and German banks to go bust. Considering that only 10% of the bailout money actually went to public spending by Greece and the rest went back to the lenders, Greeks might be feeling that they are getting a raw deal....

I agree with Mr. Beck. German banks were highly leveraged. If they had needed bailing out, then the German government would have been in serious financial trouble. BTW, the same sort of trouble that they forced on the Irish government.

Instead of fixing their own banks, Germany caused a humanitarian disaster in Greece. Those actions, a direct repudiation of European solidarity, have heavily damaged Greece. After five years, the situation is dire -- there is no room for compromise. Greece must have immediate relief in order to recover.

And, Greece is very justifiably angry at what has happened. After all, when Germany was in trouble, Greece did not insist on repayment of billions of Euros that it is owed by Germany. But, now that Germany has shown complete disregard for the goals of the European project, Greece is, I am sure, regretting its earlier forbearance.

It is time for Germany to repay the war debt and reparations that are due to Greece, with interest. And, in the interest of humanity, the harsh treatment of Greece must end immediately.

The real missed opportunity was five years ago. That was the time for compromise. It is too late -- far too late -- for that now.

Interesting choice of language. Greece seeks to 'isolate" and "delegitimize" Germany within the Eurozone, all because it suspects Germany may be using the Eurozone for its own mercantile purposes. Unfortunately, Germany's huge current account surplus suggests the Greeks may be right. So -- who should adjust in the larger interest of the whole European project?